Before the auction for IPL 2026, Kolkata Knight Riders have retained 12 players including Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane. The most surprising thing in KKR’s retention list is that they have also released their poster boy Andre Russell. Russell has been playing for this team since 2014. KKR has released a total of 9 players.

List of retained players of KKR

• Rinku Singh
• Angrish Raghuvanshi
• Ajinkya Rahane
• Manish Pandey
• rovman powell
• Sunil Narine
• Ramandeep Singh
• Anukul Roy
• Varun Chakraborty
• Harshit Rana
• Vaibhav Arora
• Umran Malik

KKR released these players

• Lavneeth Sisodia
• quinton dekock
• Rehmanullah Gurbaz
• Venkatesh Iyer
• andre russell
• Moeen Ali
• spencer johnson
• Enrique Norkhia
• Chetan Sakariya

UNPRECEDENTED!!! pic.twitter.com/QXGY3qXUqz

— KnightRidersXtra (@KKR_Xtra) November 15, 2025

How much purse does KKR have in IPL 2026 auction?

Kolkata Knight Riders has released many of its expensive players, the name of Venkatesh Iyer is also included in it. Venkatesh was bought by KKR in the last auction for Rs 23.75 crore. The other expensive player to be released is Russell, who was retained by KKR for Rs 12 crore before the last edition.

KKR has also released Quinton de Kock, who was priced at Rs 3.6 crore. This is also a surprising decision, because the team has also released the second wicket keeper Rahmanullah Gurbaz along with him. Now KKR will be looking for a good wicket keeper in the auction.

Kolkata Knight Riders are left with a purse of Rs 64.3 crore in the IPL 2026 auction. There are slots left for 13 players, which means KKR can buy a maximum of 13 players in the auction. The team can buy maximum 6 foreign players.

When will IPL 2026 auction take place?

The auction for the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League will be held in December, it will be a mini auction which is likely to last for 1 day. IPL auction is likely to take place on December 15. Its venue is under consideration, it can also happen outside India in UAE. However, the venue has not been decided yet.

The last date for releasing the retention list for IPL 2026 is 15th November. All teams will have to submit their retention lists by 5 pm tomorrow. Before that, there is news that Punjab Kings may release experienced Australian player Glenn Maxwell, while Sunrisers Hyderabad may once again show confidence in Heinrich Klaasen. Meanwhile, according to the report of Cricbuzz, Ajinkya Rahane can remain the captain of Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2026.

Glenn Maxwell OUT, Klaasen IN

In the mega auction, Sunrisers Hyderabad had retained South African wicketkeeper batsman Heinrich Klaasen for Rs 23 crore. According to Cricbuzz report, there has been no indication of Klaasen being released. He will remain in SRH next season. Klaasen scored 487 runs in 14 matches for Hyderabad in IPL 2025.

On the other hand, Glenn Maxwell scored only 48 runs in 7 matches while playing for Punjab Kings last season. In the same report it was claimed that Maxwell’s release seems certain. Last season, Mitchell Owen was brought as a replacement for Maxwell, he also has little hope of getting retention from Punjab Kings.

There is also an update regarding Royal Challengers Bangalore that Liam Livingstone, Rasikh Dar Salaam and Mayank Agarwal can also be released. Mumbai Indians can release Will Jacques. This is the same Will Jacques, whom Akash Ambani reached to shake hands with the RCB team management after buying in the auction.

Who is the captain of KKR?

Kolkata Knight Riders was captained by Ajinkya Rahane last season. KKR team had tried to trade KL Rahul with Delhi Capitals, but that deal could not be completed due to some reason. If Rahul had come to KKR, he would probably have got the captaincy. For now Rahane can remain the captain.

Also read:

Possible list of players to be released before IPL 2026, many big players left from MI-CSK!